Typically, a police officer, parachutist, fire fighter, or rescuer may carry a special knife for being ready for all emergencies. Such knives are popular among police officers and soldiers and have become ubiquitous tools for them due to its excellent performance. Nowadays, more and more people spend time in leisure activities such as mountaineering, camping, or diving. And in turn, knives such as folding knives are commercially available for meeting the needs. One type of folding knife is characterized in that it can be operated by one hand. In case of emergency, a user may quickly unfold the blade from the handle of the folding knife. For example, a diver may use one hand to quickly unfold the blade from the handle of the folding knife if unfortunately the other hand is tangled by fishing-net, rope, or safety belt during diving. Next, the diver may cut the fishing-net, rope, or safety belt by means of the cutting edge of the blade. As a result, life of the diver can be saved.
While such folding knife is characterized in that the blade can be quickly unfolded or folded by means of one hand, however, it lacks of safety due to its disadvantageous construction. For example, the finger of a user may be hurt by the cutting edge of the pivoting blade when the blade is folding into a groove in the handle. In a worse condition, the finger may be completely cut off. Thus, folding knife manufacturers must spend time in developing a highly safe folding knife as improvement. Following is a detailed description of the prior folding knife.
Referring to FIG. 1, the folding knife 1 comprises a handle 10 and a blade 20. The handle 10 comprises a groove 11 open to its lower side. The groove 11 is adapted to receive the folded blade 20. The blade 20 comprises a point 21 at one end, a pivot 22 at the other end, and a pivot pin 23 in the pivot 22 for pivotably disposing the pivot 22 at one end of the groove 11 in the handle 10. The blade 20 is adapted to receive in the groove 11 by pivoting the pivot 22 about the pivot pin 23. Alternatively, move a slide 24 on the blade 20 to cause the blade 20 to pivot out of the groove 11. Such pivoting will be stopped by a stopper 25 in the handle 10 proximate the pivot pin 23 for preventing the blade 20 from pivoting out of its predetermined limit. In FIG. 1, the handle 10 comprises two identical plates coupled together by a small flat block 12 so as to form a gap (i.e., the groove 11) therebetween.
Moreover, a flat piece 13 is formed on a side of one plate adjacent the groove 11 in the handle 10. The piece 13 has one end extended from the pivot pin 23 toward the other end so as to form an elongate trough 14. A bent resilient member 15 is thus formed by the trough 14 and extended from one end of the piece 13 at the pivot pin 23. The resilient member 15 is adapted to bear against an outer surface of the pivot 22 of the blade 20 externally of the groove 11 (see FIG. 1).
Referring to FIG. 2, for retracting the blade 20 into the groove 11, a user has to press and flatten the resilient member 15 by means of the finger so as to disengage it from the outer surface of the pivot 22 of the blade 20. Next, pivot the back of the blade 20 to fold the blade 20 into the groove 11. However, the finger pressing the resilient member 15 (as indicated by arrow in FIG. 2) may be cut by the cutting edge of the retracting blade 20. To the worse, the finger may be completely cut off in an extreme condition. In brief, the folding knife 1 is not a safe device.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a novel folding knife having advantages of being capable of easily, quickly folding or unfolding by one hand, being easy in carrying, and being highly safe when the blade is pivoting to retract into the handle, thereby contributing significantly to the advancement of the art.